Archives for September 29, 2008

‘I am starting to believe in this team. They did what good things do yesterday. They took the best shot that a bad and desperate team had to offer, stayed calm, and then dominated. It is not easy to win in the NFL, even against the lower tier of teams. But the easy stuff is over. Now we will see what this team is made of.’

‘The game’s 60 minutes long, and it’s not over until after that 60th minute. Someone should tell them it’s best if they show up for the first 45 minutes as well.’

‘Coach Dick Jauron said McGee was having difficulty walking on Monday, but it was too early to determine whether the starter would miss any playing time.’

‘”We’re calling it a sprained knee and we’ll know more after today,” said head coach Dick Jauron. “I know that (head athletic trainer) Bud (Carpenter) is sending him for more tests. We’ll certainly know more by Wednesday.”‘

‘Sunday’s win evened Dick Jauron’s record with the Bills at 18-18 making him just one of five coaches in team history with a winning percentage of .500 or better. Jauron joins Marv Levy (.615), Wade Phillips (.604), Lou Saban (.598) and Chuck Knox (.507) on that list. Jauron stands fifth on the club’s all-time regular season wins list.’

‘The focus the rest of this season for the Bills should be ensuring they’re ready to prevent inferior teams from hanging around. While Dick Jauron isn’t the type who inspires players to smash heads into hard surfaces before heading out of the locker room, and while it’s great that they’ve been adjusting and finishing well, it would be nice to see more early urgency.’

‘The last Buffalo Bills team to start a season 4-0 featured Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith. The 1992 Bills would win their third straight AFC championship.’

‘Pull out all the stops. Rams coach Scott Linehan adopted that philosophy in the first quarter, and why not? With various media reports saying that Linehan needed to win to save his job for another week, it was no time to play conservatively.’

‘The Rams kept the Bills’ offense stifled with three sacks of quarterback Trent Edwards. Melvin Fowler was flagged for a tripping penalty late in the quarter. It wiped out a 27-yard gain by Marshawn Lynch down to the Rams’ 23.’

‘The Bills took advantage by running more out of a spread offense and it worked. To start the quarter, they marched 76 yards in nine plays to a touchdown that pulled them within 14-13. Runs accounted for 65 yards of the drive.’

‘”We made adjustments and that’s what you have to do in this league,” said receiver Lee Evans after the Bills’ 31-14 victory. “Sometimes when you get out there, they don’t give you what you want to see. So you have to adjust. Everybody did that today.”‘

‘”We don’t like to give teams 100 [rushing yards] for a game,” strong safety Donte Whitner said. “But [the Rams] came out in some formation plays that we haven’t seen, and then after that we pretty much took care of it. But you have to give them credit because they are going through a lot of things in that locker room and they came out and fought today.”‘

‘The Bills believe they are playing to a different standard now. They expect to win now. When a crisis occurs, they expect to surmount it. “We stay together,” said linebacker Kawika Mitchell. “When things are down, like we were in the first half, nobody yells at each other. We weren’t losing our cool in the locker room. Everybody was cool. We knew we could win this game. That’s big. That’s when you know you have a real team.”‘

‘”That was my first fumble recovery, too, and my first forced fumble,” a beaming McKelvin said. “It felt good to be out there. When I saw “T’ limping off the field, I said, “OK, here we go.’ I knew my name would get called, so I went out there and tried to do the best I could to hold up my end of the bargain. I started getting into it and I felt like I was very comfortable out there.”‘